News

Justyna Wolinska has successfully passed the six-year tenure track phase, and has now been jointly appointed to a permanent professorship for Aquatic Evolutionary Ecology by IGB and Freie Universität Berlin.

Researchers from 90 scientific institutions worldwide have stated that freshwater biodiversity research and conservation lag far behind the efforts carried out in terrestrial and marine environments. In a new publication in Ecology Letters, they propose a research agenda with 15 priorities aimed at improving research on biodiversity in lakes, rivers, ponds and wetlands. This is urgently needed, as biodiversity loss is taking place much faster in inland waters than on land or in the oceans.

The World Climate Summit in Glasgow recently ended and climate protection is also to be given greater priority in Germany. Rita Adrian, Sonja Jähnig and Mark Gessner from IGB shed light on what climate change and the current political discourse mean for inland waters and aquatic biodiversity.

What happens in water bodies when the water goes and comes back? Dr. Maria Isabel Arce has shown on a lowland river that after drying up and raining, rivers can release more carbon dioxide and methane.

IGB scientists gave feedback on the potential revision of the EU list of pollutants affecting surface and groundwater

Scientific memorandum "Energy transition not at the expense of aquatic biodiversity" formulates seven concrete proposals to defuse conflicts of goals between climate and biodiversity protection.

In the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference, scientific societies in the field of water research once again recommend that the high relevance of inland waters should be better taken into account in the context of climate policy. The scientific findings and data from IGB also prove this urgency.

Recent studies show that this greenhouse gas is also produced in oxygen-rich waters: various phytoplankton species emit methane. IGB researcher Dr Mina Bizic pooled the knowledge on methane formation by phytoplankton and discussed the possible consequences.